Councillor Pat Hackett welcomed everyone to the last meeting of the Cabinet as the Council would have new governance arrangements from the Annual Council Meeting (A Committee System) scheduled for 28 September 2020. Councillor Hackett informed that this was the first Cabinet meeting to be held remotely. He then drew Cabinet Members’ attention to the following facts about the Cabinet:

The Cabinet had been created following the Local Government Act 2000 to include a Leader and up to ten Members. The Council had adopted the practice in January 2001.

Several meetings had included over forty agenda items:

·  19-03-09 – 52

·  14-01-10 – 41

·  04-02-10 – 41

·  18-03-10 – 41

·  22-07-10 – 46

·  12-04-12 – 53

·  21-06-12 – 42

In this time the Leader of the Council had changed four times: Councillor Steve Foulkes (to 2010), Councillor Jeff Green (to 2011), Councillor Phil Davies (to 2019) and then Councillor Pat Hackett.

Since 4 January 2001, there had been:

·  330 Cabinet meetings;

·  fifty different Councillors had sat on the Cabinet in that time, chaired by four different Leaders, Councillor Pat Hackett being the fourth;

·  930 Cabinet Member decisions had been taken; and

·  there had been a coalition Cabinet during this time with 5 Labour, 3 Conservative and 2 Liberal Democrat Members.

Councillor Hackett thanked all of the officers, past and present, for their contributions to the civic life of Wirral over the 19 years of this system of governance which had seen many challenges and changes.  He informed that one constant was that in that time, Cabinet Members had tried to perform to the best of their ability for the residents of the borough they represented.